The Imrie Affect
by Imrie
Summary: The year or so following when House has the surgery on his leg. House has to hire someone new and it goes from there.
1. Chapter 1

Imrie Tavington looked around her and sighed. She had meant to stand out, but not this much. Okay, well maybe she had. All the other doctors around her had on Oxford shirts and neatly pressed slacks. Imrie had definitely failed that part of the interview process. She looked down at herself and could have laughed out loud. She was currently wearing one of the most comfortable outfits a person could wear. She had on her favorite pair of jeans which happened to have at least two patches on each leg and a worn out square on the right thigh. The t-shirt she was wearing, thankfully, was just plain and black. These clothes were good for hanging out, but she supposed that Dr. House might not appreciate them. Then again…she had heard many strange things about him.

Imrie looked up at the ceiling and then over at the receptionist. She was currently chatting to some little girlfriend about how many dorks were currently sitting in 'her' part of the hospital. She scoffed slightly but said nothing; knowing the moment she did, she would regret it. After what seemed like an eternity, which only turned out to be 10 minutes, her name was finally called. She smiled slightly to herself and walked fluidly in her grass green converse. There was a doctor standing there with a ready smile.

"Hi, I'm Dr. James Wilson. You're…Imrie, right?" he asked, mispronouncing her name, like most people did. It didn't exactly bother her. Growing up with a name like Imrie, you get used to it being said wrong. She nodded, trying not to laugh and shook the hand he extended. "Just follow me."

They walked side by side down a hallways and Imrie could tell she would like this hospital. Glass was always fun. Except for when you broke it. Then it was just really messy and very hurtful. She had found that out the hard way. Dr. Wilson opened a door on the left, and held it open for her to walk in first. She walked in and for a moment, she thought she had gone crazy., There wasn't anyone in the office. Imrie looked around, confused.

"Is he really not here, or can only you see him?" she asked, turning to look at Wilson. He gave an apologetic smile and motioned for her to sit down. Almost as soon as she had sat down, a deep voice behind her started to speak.

"You're Imrie Tavington, right?" it asked. She smiled, realizing whoever it was had said her name right. That only happened when people had actually heard other people say it. She stood again, and turned around.

Most people, when they first saw House, they noticed the obviously new limp. But the first thing that Imrie noticed was his piercing blue eyes that seemed to slice right through any defenses she had. Or thought she had. She stared back at him with her own bright green eyes and he seemed almost surprised that she didn't look away.

"Yes, actually. And I must assume that you are Greg House…?"?

"No one but," he answered shortly. He walked between her and Wilson to reach his desk. It was only then that she noticed the limp and his cane. It didn't matter. A good doctor was a good doctor. She sat down again and waited for him, or Wilson for that matter, to say something.

"Well, I have to tell you Ms. Tavington, your resume is quite impressive. But I'm guessing you already knew that. Is there any specific reason why you want to work here, with us?" Wilson asked, obviously uncomfortable with the silence that had settled.

"Yes, there is. I actually applied to med school here, and was accepted of course, but sadly got a better scholarship elsewhere. Also, I, for some reason got a better job offer than this-" she started, but was interrupted.

"Then why would you work here? If you say you got a better job offer, why work here?" House asked, his gaze never leaving her face.

"I could ask you the same thing. I know you had to have gotten better job offers, why did you take this one?" she asked him, and tilted her head slightly to the right.

He raised an eyebrow and was silent once more, looking down at the paper in front of him. "like I was saying, I wanted to work here because….well…I don't really know. There's just always been something about this place that has seemed appealing. Maybe the job opportunity, and maybe the chance to work with you, Dr. House. Whichever answer makes you want to hire me more. I'm guessing you're going to only have listened to the one I said mentioning you. Helps the ego, you know."

House looked up at her and gave a silent sigh. One of these again. These individuals. They were usually harder to mess with. Always were, always will be. He glanced down at her information once more and finally gave in. She was exactly what they needed. Or at least what Wilson thought they needed. He didn't really pay much attention to the rest of the interview. He saw merely observing the two of them. Wilson seemed to be having almost fun talking to her. Still, House watched her silently, able to tell when she was nervous about a question, or very calm with herself. At one point, Imrie turned to look at House, and he noticed she gave a slight shiver under his gaze. She looked at him for a few seconds but Wilson, who was extending a hand, and standing up, stole her attention again. She did the same, shaking his hand. "We'll be in touch," he said.

Imrie reached over the glass table to shake House's hand. He shook her hand and noticed a few things. The first was that she had a very good grip, the second being her hands were a bit shaking. The last was that her hands were soft. He pushed that last thought out of his mind as he stood. Wilson held open the door for her and she walked out. House looked her over and Wilson caught the look.

"Well, I never thought I'd see you looking at another woman so quickly." He said, sitting down again. He put his folder down on the table.

"First of all, I'm not looking at her like you think of looking at a woman. I found her choice of clothes…interesting. And shoes…and secondly, what do you mean so quickly? Stacy and I…well, I'd rather stay off of that subject."

"What was so interesting about her clothes? And what exactly was the problem with her shoes?"

"Well, there's the fact that she seemed to have no respect for dress code-"

"Neither do you! Or do I have to remind you that you don't ever wear your white coat." Wilson interrupted.

"Different story. I actually work here."

"And she probably will too. And you'll probably have to get used to that too. Anyway, what about her shoes?"

"They were green. And sneakers. Or did you not notice that while you were flirting…?" House asked, looking at him sideways.

"What do you have against comfortable shoes now? And I was not flirting. At least I was polite. All you did was stare."

House shrugged lightly. "Don't we have other people to interview?"

"If you really want to, but I think we found who we're looking for."

"Correction. You found who YOU were looking for. How do you know that I don't want some boring, ugly, know-it-all guy?"

"Because, if we had someone like that, you'd be in competition."

"Ha." House said shortly.

"So we both agree on Imrie?" Wilson asked. When House didn't say anything, he smiled. "I'll take that as a yes. I'll tell Cuddy later this afternoon."

"Great…someone who-" House started.

"Someone who can put up with you." Wilson started.

---

House looked around and sighed. He really didn't want to be here. He looked sideways at Wilson. "Do we really have to be here?"

"We couldn't get in touch with her any other way. So yes, we have to be here. Unless you want that annoying woman working with you." Wilson answered.

"She wasn't annoying...I foundher behavior...interesting."

"Like you found Imrie's shoes interesting."

House looked around himself again and almost turned back out of the building. This was no sort of hospital. No "No wonder she wanted to leave...look at this place."

The general hospital they were walking through looked almost nothing like Princeton-Plainsboro teaching hospital. "This is what other hospitals look like...you'd think you'd know that."

"I think we made the right decision in hiring her. I can't even begin to wonder what would make someone want to stay here." House said. He walked slowly and they walked to a receptionist.

"Excuse me, we're looking for Dr. Tavington. Is she around here somewhere?" Wilson asked the woman behind a blue countered desk.

"She better be," the woman answered snidely. "Walk down this hallway to the elevator. Go up one floor, and her office is on the right. Can't miss it."

"Thanks," he muttered. They walked to the elevator and hepulled his sleeve out a little longer and covered his mouth.

"What're you doing?" House asked.

"There are sick people here." he answered simply. House rolled his eyes and they stepped onto the elevator. The ride seemed to take forever when you took into account the baby crying, the mother yelling at the father that this was all his fault, and a young child standing behind them coughing non-stop.

When the doors opened, they got out quickly and looked to the right. There was a long row of offices, one with a janitor standing at the door. He seemed to be peeling off the letters on the door. They walked over and saw the name 'Dr. Imrie Tavington' being pulled off. "Excuse us," Wilson said as they walked through the door way.

At first, they didn't see anyone. House looked around the medium sized office and knew immediately where she was. Hiding. Under the desk. He pointed to the desk with his cane and Wilson got the idea.

"Ms. Tavington? Its Dr. Wilson and Dr. House. From-" Wilson started.

"Shhhhh!" a voice from under the table said. "Don't let them know I'm here. I just quit and my boss is looking for me. Trying to get me to stay. Like thats gonna happen!"

Imrie pulled her head out of the confined space and looked over at them. Wilson raised an eyebrow. "Oh! My hair. Yea..."

She looked cross eyed at her hair line and smiled. The once pure caramel locks now had black tips. "A little prank...from one roommate to another."

Imrie looked behind them and finally stood up. "Well, I've packed but I still believe my boss will be storming in sometime when he realizes he won't be able to replace me. Why exactly did you both come here? I mean, you didn't have to tell me in person that I didn't get the job. You could have just sent a letter. Or never said anything."

Wilson looked confused and House was tempted to smile. "See, thats the sad, ugly thing. You did get the job..."

"What!..." Imrie started. She bit her bottom lip in excitement. "Sorry to act like a little girl, but...wow...I thought I blew it...!"

"So did I," House muttered under his breath.

"When can you start, Imrie?" Wilson asked, nudging House lightly.

"Erm. Probably in about a month or so. I'm having some medical surgery done." she replied, leaning over to pick up a brown box on the floor. She lifted it and restedit on the desk in front of her.

"What kind? Implants of some sort?" House asked sarcastically.

"Would it make you like me more if I said yes?" she asked, looking at him, and using the same sarcastic tone.

"Maybe."

"Well, too bad. I'm having surgery on my elbow. Hurt it during soccer quite a while ago. Been twitching ever since. Well, only when I'm not paying attention to it."she explained.

House instinctively looked at her arm, and nothing happened. Wilson asked her some other boring question about work and her attention was drawn to another topic. Just when he was about to look away, it did it. Her arm really did have a twitch.

"Did you feel that?" he asked quickly.

"Feel what? You staring at me? Yes."

"No. Your arm. Did you really not feel it?"

"No. Why?"

"...Nothing..." he answered uneasily. "As long as you've had it looked at...the brain usually only sends things like that to body parts when its falling asleep. Thinks the body is dieing. But you're not. And you're not falling asleep."

"I know. Exactly why I had it looked-" she started to say.

"IMRIE!" a loud voice yelled. Her eyes went wide and she ducked again. A man that was near bald walked into the office, his face red. "Where is she?"

"Where's who?" House asked back, his face weirdly blank.

"Imrie. Dr. Imrie Tavington. Where is she?"

"I don't know anyone by that name." he answered.

"Damn...must have left already. Have to call her cell." the man muttered while walking out.

She stood back up again, pulled a small silver item out of her pocket and turned the volume down. "That, gentleman, is the meanest person you will ever meet."

"You sure about that...you don't know House very well yet." Wilson said as Imrie picked up the box. She began to walk out of the office but House put his cane across the doorway.

"Is there something you need?" she asked, barely turning her head.

"An explanation. Of why you really want to work with us." he said, looking at the wall on the opposite side of the hallway.

She turned back around, the sparkle lost from her eye, and the smile no longer on her face. "I've been stuck doing things I didn't want to do my whole life. I finally broke out of that habit when I went to med school instead of law school. I take my career very seriously, even though everyone around me doesn't seem to take me very seriously. I worked hard to get to where I am. Even though I probably didn't have to. I wanted to. And I want to work with you both. At the moment, its one of the best jobs I could ever get. I can learn so much from the both of you that I would have to be an idiot to not take a chance. A risk. When you saw me a few weeks ago, you had to thnk I was joke, but I've never been more serious about anything in my whole life. If you have a problem with the way I dress, fine. I'll change. Anything for this one chance. Don't like my hair? Nothing I can do about it. At least for a while. Have to deal with it for a while. But I'm willing to leave the safest job ever known to man and take one of the biggest risks : working with people I don't know, in an environment I don't know, doing the job I love." she answered, her eyes blazing now. She pushed the cane out of the way. "Good enough?" she asked, her eyebrows raised, in an almost challenging way.

"Good enough," House agreed.

---


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I sadly don't own House…

A/N: First, I'd like to thank you for your criticism. I know some people might not appreciate it, but I do. Frankly, I'd rather have harsh criticism than silent readers who never say anything. I'd also like to say that I have planned for her to change. She won't be like that forever. Also, yes. She is a Mary Sue and I realized that. I have been writing for a while…but that doesn't bother me (at least, at the moment it doesn't…). If it bothers you, that's why you review. And that's why I listen… Thanks, Buzzkill Bunny. Keep reviewing, if you will. I…weirdly enough…value peoples opinions. Hope this chapter is better…if not…hey…you've got one more story you can give a bad review to!

Imrie looked around her and let her mind wander. For once in her life, she doubted the decision she had made. The only person here who seemed to ever like her was Wilson. And she didn't even see him on a daily basis. She pushed her fingers through her now black tip-less hair and looked back down at the book she had been thumbing through. The words seemed more jumbled than usual. She gave a frustrated sigh, stood and walked out of the office. It only been what…a week or so? And she was already getting stir-crazy.

Imrie bit her bottom lip tightly and walked down the hallway, toward the elevator. Someone stopped her she could always say she was taking a break. In reality it was true…although it had been her maybe third break of the day. Cuddy didn't need to know that. She pressed the down button and found it quite odd that there was utter silence around her. Usually House was yelling at someone, or someone was yelling at House. Either way…

The elevator finally opened and she walked in, not really paying attention to anything around her. "On another break, Dr. Tavington?"

Imrie finally snapped out of her dream world, realizing one of the people she had been avoiding was right behind her. She turned her head slightly and saw House's familiar blue eyes. "I might be. Or I might just like riding the elevators. Who knows…?"

He rolled his eyes. "If you want to get through this hospital unseen, take the stairs."

"What about you?" she muttered under her breath.

He looked down at the back of her head. "What about me? Oh. The stairs. You were trying to make me laugh…or hurt my feelings…"

Imrie shook her head lightly, trying to block out the world again. It's not like she had any real work to do. Clinic hours, maybe. But House hadn't taken a new case yet.

"You've changed since you've gotten here, you know." He said, her mind snapping back to the slightly less cramped elevator; considering a family of two had just gotten off.

"Really? Have I? I haven't had time to notice…what with all the work we've been doing and all…" she said, stepping out of the elevator when it reached ground floor.

She tried to walk to the exit, hoping for some fresh air, and to not be pulled into the clinic, but that rarely happened. "You have." He said, a little distance behind her.

"I know. You've told me. But I'm glad to see you notice some things besides how far your hair line is receding." She told him as she turned around to finally face him. He was dressed as casual as he usually was.

Imrie glanced down, self-consciously. Okay, she had ditched the jeans. Even she admitted they were way to…laid back. She had worn a pair of black pants, with a surprisingly ironed white, button up shirt. However, the pants were a little loose, and the sleeves of the shirt were rolled up to just beneath the elbow. But hey, better than jeans.

"I guess I have. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, is it? Change is good. Even you should think that. I mean, you hired me, didn't you?"

"Only because I value Wilson's opinion. And because your quite stunning when you want to be." He answered as though the answer itself was obvious.

"Okay, I can deal with the fact that you hired me because of Wilson. But the rest was because you liked the way I look? Funny. And I thought you'd go for the mean, lawyer type. Too bad for every malpractice lawyer who wants you, eh?" she said smartly.

She started walking away again, but it seemed like he just would not stop following her. "You know, that actually wasn't bad…"

Imrie turned around and looked up at him. "Look, Doctor. I don't like to be followed. Or taunted. So…please…don't. I have ways of getting away from you."

"Oh, really? Like what?" he asked.

"Like this," she muttered before turning and walked into the clinic. He raised an eyebrow.

"This will definitely be…interesting…" he said to no one but himself as he walked back towards the elevator.

Imrie sat at the computer in front of her and began typing meaningless words. Maybe words that put together didn't mean anything, but she just wanted to at least look like she was really doing something. Her mind wandered back to the conversation she had had with House earlier in the day and she couldn't believe most of the things she had said. Most of the sarcasm she ever had was just after she had had time to think of it. This time…he just made her want to say much worse things than how his hair had been looking.

She punched random keys now, not wishing to do anything more than nothing. The day was almost over, thankfully. She could not wait to get home, put on some music and for maybe the first time since she had started working here, relax. She checked the clock at the bottom of the computer screen and smiled. She could finally leave. She quickly closed the computer program and shut down the computer itself. Just as she had bent over to pick up her messenger bag, she heard a voice behind her.

"Nice ass," the all to familiar voice of House said.

"Thanks for noticing. Although I'm sure you did before. When you decided to hire me," she replied, swinging her messenger bag onto her shoulder.

He smirked slightly. "I didn't really think you'd take that much offense to that comment."

"Which one? That my ass is cute, or that you hired me because I'm pretty? I basically take offense from both. I would have like to have been hired for being a good doctor. Although, it seems now like that doesn't even matter, does it?"

Imrie reached into her bag and started fishing out her car keys.

"Of course it matters. If you had barely graduated med school and you had the worst smile in the world, you would never been working here. Well…maybe for Wilson, but not for me. Your medical background does count for something."

"That's good to know. I mean, I actually did work for a reason. I don't really like people who go through life just slipping by. Doing as little work as possible. It seems almost a waste of life to never experience things. Now if you'll excuse me…I have a bowl of ramen noodles waiting for me." She said, trying to walk past him.

"Not so fast…"

"What now?" she basically groaned.

"I need you to look up something for me. Something that could cause neck pain, fast heart beat, and hallucinations."

"The first thing that comes to mind is heart attack."

"But that wouldn't cause hallucinations."

She sighed, dropped her bag on the floor and grabbed a medical dictionary. "I guess I'll tell you in the morning."  
"Good night," he muttered, walking out. She sighed again, shook her head and opened the dictionary.

"I'm sure it will be." She said bitterly.

"Good morning!" House said loudly into Imrie's ear. She jumped awake and realized she hadn't gone home at all. She had gotten to the C's before falling asleep.

"I see you had a very productive night. So, tell me what you found."

"Nothing. Maybe it was a heart attack, and maybe she has schizophrenia."

"There was nothing about it in her medical records and nothing taken in history."

"Everybody lies." She muttered to herself.

"What was that?"

"I said that everybody lies. Besides, you can test for schizophrenia. And if she doesn't have it, its one more thing we can mark off a list of things it could be…" she stated, standing up.

"Now, I am going home for a few hours and will be back after I have bathed, changed, and eaten."

"Nothing more than I'd expect." House said as he walked back into his office.

Imrie picked up her bag, looked through the glass door and sighed. He certainly knew how to keep someone guessing.


End file.
